Tag Archives: French Friday

This morning, like on any morning while I am preparing breakfast pour mes petits, I turned on Radio France Internationale on my cell phone. I usually listen to the news in easy French (Le Journal en Français Facile), which I have to download first.

Somehow, this morning, I just wanted to push play on the regular broadcast, which is streamed live. Continue reading »

What a wealth of information about culture! A story about Irina Ionescu, the Paris-born Romanian photographer; the remodelling going on at the Rodin Museum and how the new exhibits will include sculptures Rodin himself collected in his travels, which will open a window on the man; a story about another museum where a new exhibit titled “Joie de Vivre” just opened.

I downloaded the news too, later on, and heard about the match coming up tonight between France and Germany at Stade de France. So much going on in France and Paris. I can hear about it all the way from my kitchen, as I prepare oatmeal and cut up fruit for our breakfast. I don’t need to travel to Paris to feel like I am in the know about things going on over there. Tragically, traveling to Paris may not be the safest thing to do after the attacks we witnessed tonight.

Later in the afternoon, I was in Knoxville with the kids for their group violin lesson which happens once a month. My husband tried to get a hold of us as he got the news of the terrible attacks in Paris, but my phone did not get any signal in the basement of the music building where we were.

On the way home, I called him and he told me about the tragedy in Paris. My heart goes out to the whole country of France and to the beautiful city of Paris – the most beautiful city in the world. My prayers are with the families who lost loved ones tonight – too many for reason. Sadness. All around.

As a Francophone and Francophile, I am deeply troubled by these crimes against France but, as President Obama said, this is a crime against humanity, not just against the French people.

A staple in French cuisine, madeleine cookies are delicious and relatively easy to make. You will need a special pan to give the batter their typical shell shape. I got two pans, because it is more practical and my recipe calls for two anyway.

As he tasted the cookie, it reminded him of things in his past – which is why the Merriam Webster gives you a second definition of madeleine as “one that evokes a memory.” Continue reading »

Mix eggs and salt

Add sugar gradually

After the ribbon stage, add the flour and butter

I made madeleine cookies using this recipe. If you want to follow it, here are my tips:

Use non-stick spray oil. I brushed canola oil on the cavities instead. My madeleines did not stick, but they did not come out by shaking the pans either. I had to use a spatula to gently unstick them from the sides.

You might want to lower the temperature to 375F and keep them in there for 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven. They recommend 400F. If your oven is fast, you will burn the madeleines on the outside and have some undone in the middle.

Melting and cooling the butter should be your first step, even before you pre-heat the oven. Critical path. Just sayin’.

To fold the lemon zest, use a concave spatula. It mixes better, but still gently.

Don’t pour madeleine batter into the cavities as they recommend in the recipe unless you are 150% coordinated. It’s very messy and you have to be extremely precise and ready to catch the drips with a spatula in your other hand. Instead, use a spoon or your concave spatula from tip #4 above.

Dust some powder (confectioners’) sugar over them. They are good without it, too, but even better with it.

Once and for all, let’s settle the discussion about the familiar “tu” or the formal “vous” in French. I found this witty flow-chart which will take you through all sorts of social situations.

You will find out how to address God in French, among other things. (You might be surprised…)

Also, how to address your boss if you are upset with him and you want to let him know about it. (I would like to be a fly on the wall, provided your boss speaks French and you talk to him/her on a regular basis in French… Riiiight!….)

If you are up to 30 lbs. overweight, love to eat, and hate gyms, French Women Don’t Get Fat is zee book for you. Here’s my review of this national best-selling book.

I read this book for the sheer pleasure of learning more about French culture. To my surprise, I was already doing many things French women do. But it makes sense. Because Romania is a Francophone nation, we grew up with many French ideas about life, liberty and the pursuit of good food.

Like a French/Francophone woman, I happen to hate gyms and love to eat, but I am not overweight. That’s because I pay attention, a concept hinted at in Bringing Up Bébé, as well.

However, I did learn a lot more principles French women follow as they pay attention to their weight. Want the skinny? (Sorry, I could not resist…) In two words: portion control. Easier said than done.

Well, this is where Mireille Guiliano’s book comes in: she will tell you how to trick your mind into being satisfied with two tortillas instead of three. Or two ounces of chocolate instead of six. Intrigued?

You really should read the book. There’s no substitute for the real thing. Just to um, whet your appetite, here are some of the power points:

French women eat three meals a day.

French women don’t snack all the time.

French women drink two quarts of water per day. At least.

French women never let themselves be hungry.

French women never let themselves feel stuffed.

French women eat with all their five senses, allowing less food to seem more.

French women train their taste buds, and those of their young, from an early age.

French women honor mealtime rituals and never eat standing up, on the run, or in front of the TV.

French women don’t watch much TV.

French women eat and serve what is in season, for maximum flavor and value.

French women love to discover new flavors and are always experimenting with herbs, spices, and citrus juices to make a familiar dish seem new.

French women understand that as an adult everyone is the keeper of her own equilibrium.

French women plan meals in advance and think in terms of menus even at home.

French women love to entertain at home.

French women walk everywhere they can.

French women take the stairs whenever possible.

French women think dining in is as sexy as dining out.

French women are stubborn individuals and don’t follow mass movements.

French women know l’amour fait maigrir (love is slimming).

French women eat for pleasure.

French women avoid anything that demands too much effort for too little pleasure (like sweating in a gym).

French women don’t diet.

If you want a plan of attack, the book will give it to you. Here are the main points:

1. Write down everything you eat for three weeks. Don’t count calories, just write down approximately what you ate and how much. At the end of the three weeks, watch for patterns. Round up the usual suspects (too much food late at night, too many sugary, salty, greasy snacks, not enough water, too many caloric drinks etc).

2. Make a leek soup (recipe in the book) and eat that for two days, plus drink all the water you want. Leek soup is a natural diuretic, it tastes divine, and it will get you a jump start on the French way of thinking about food. Losing a bit of weight in two days won’t hurt, either.

3. The next three months constitute your short-term recasting. The principles in the bullet list above start here. You will lose at least half of your target pounds during this time.

4. Stabilization and eating for life – this is the bulk of the book, complete with recipes and ideas on how to think your way into a thinner you. Also, how to move more without sweating and hurting and paying expensive gym memberships.

The author, a French woman married to an American, lives her life in New York and Paris. She is entertaining, informative, and not at all preachy. She is comfortable with herself and with her message. She is not afraid to admit that one of the reasons France is not the super-power that America is, is that France has not acquired all the technologies that have made American life so convenient and comfortable. But, on the other hand, she points out that it is this easy lifestyle that has made Americans fat.

In conclusion, as Molière put it, Manger bien and juste. (Eat well and eat right.)

We love French in our homeschool. I have started teaching my children French on a regular basis this spring. We joined the Alliance Française of Knoxville, signed up for Popi, and watched Caillou on youtube. However, I felt the need for a systematic approach to learning French. Enter Petra Lingua. Continue reading »

Full disclosure: they are one of my sponsors. But I would not be writing about this curriculum if I did not think it was great or if I did not use it with my children.

French learning for kids under 10

So Petra Lingua is for younger elementary kids, say ages 3-10. However, if you are an adult who needs to study French and enjoy animation, this is a great product for you, as well. I would add that if you feel intimidated by language learning, you should definitely consider Petra Lingua. Their mascot, a cute doggy named Wuffy, will become your best buddy – while teaching you French.

I know my kids laugh every time he enters the screen. He makes an entrance in a different way every time.

The lessons contains songs, repetition, a chance for you to repeat back what the speaker said, as well as exercises to practice what you learned.

Also, you should know this product comes in two versions: an online version and a DVD kit, which offers a booklet with exercises and a music CD, as well as the DVD for the lessons. At the end of the 20 lessons, you will have learned 500 basic words in French and, hopefully, you will have gained some confidence toward more lessons.

They even have a lesson plan you can follow so that you know what to expect (or what to do) for each lesson.

The online product costs $4.99 per month for six months. How’s that for a bargain? You can do one lesson a week and be done in 20 weeks, with no stress and without breaking the bank. If you wanted the DVD kit, which also contains a Wuffy Dog Handpuppet and a set of playing cards to practice vocabulary, it is $75.

So it boils down to how good your internet connection is. I use this set to teach my French Play Group at the library and their connection is not so good on some days. The result? The songs get interrupted a lot as the laptop keeps buffering. I have learned to bring the DVDs instead.

My kids love Wuffy and they play with the handpuppet a lot. They sing the songs and request certain lessons just because they like them. For instance, my daughter really, really likes the Vegetables and Fruits – which happens to be available for free on their website. My son prefers the lesson about counting to 20 – things come in train cars and he loves trains.

If you want to watch the free lesson, go ahead and sign up. You will receive a code for 15% off when you do decide to purchase. How cool is that?

As we progress through these lessons, I will be back to tell you some more about them. Until then, au revoir!

For a couple of months now, the kids and I have been listening to Allons Danser! – a CD with French music for kids, produced by Whistlefritz. It has been such a great tool for my French Play Group, not just for my children. We use the Bonjour, Les Amis song to start the meeting and Au Revoir to close. Continue reading »

At home, I play the entire CD as the children play and I cook or do some other housework. It’s the best background music. You know how music can influence your mood even if you don’t understand the words? Marie-Louise Desage’s crystal-clear voice gives me joy. And although I understand the words, the music makes me feel like I am on a beach vacation as I wipe kitchen counters or peel potatoes.

The Carribean-infused melodies, written by Didier Prossaird, go along well with summer time or any time of the year when you wish you could have summer back. In short, these songs put me in a good mood – a vacation mode. They are not just for the kids.

Here’s a listing of all the songs, with the vocabulary you can expect to learn and drill as you sing:

Le Camion de Glace – Ice cream van – all the kids come out of the house when the ice cream van passes by

La Grenouille Reinette – A frog named Reinette – whimsical and funny

En Haut, En Bas – Up, down

Les Petits Poissons – The little fishes – swimming, in the water, little, big, the same as

Au Revoir – Goodbye – saying goodbye in different ways, the party is over, it’s time to say goodbye

We all memorize so much better if the words are set to music. This collection will be the perfect addition to your French class. We listen to it in the car, too. I am still amazed by how much I can retain just by listening to 15 minutes of French music a couple of times a week. If you, like me, are looking for ways to maximize learning throughout the day, you will appreciate this CD you can add to your car schooling supply list.

The CD booklet contains all the French lyrics, as well as a vocabulary list for each song. Thus, instead of paraphrasing so you get the gist of the song, Whistlefritz gives you word-by-word translations to help with your goal of learning French. How helpful is that? Any homeschooling mom who took some French and remembers some should be able to utilize this CD and help introduce her children to the sounds of the beautiful French language.

The CD booklet provides the lyrics and their literal translation

My children break into song in French out of the blue, while playing or running around outside. Their pronunciation may not be all there and they may not understand everything they are saying, but it’s a start. Plus, it is a great opportunity for me to join them in song. Sometimes I exaggerate a bit the correct pronunciation so they can correct themselves. Other times I just sing and have fun along with them.

I highly recommend the Allons Danser! CD above any other language learning CDs I have bought – and I bought a few.

Disclaimer; I received a free copy of the product above in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. The Amazon links above are affiliate links. All opinions I have expressed here are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

We had five children ranging from one to ten, two girls and three boys. One family traveled 45 minutes to attend and said they would be back.

Everybody behaved well. All the kids showed great interest in learning French. They made an effort to sing and pronounce the words when I asked them to. Continue reading »

The Library moved us to a different meeting room and it actually worked for the better. They needed the larger, Burchfield Room, as an art studio for now, because they were busy painting large props for their upcoming Summer Reading Program workshops.

Two of our students working the exercises on Petra Lingua

They gave us the Community Classroom – a smaller, more intimate setting, perfect for our purpose. The small quarters discourage running, roughhousing, and talking.

I placed the blocks in one corner, the Lincoln Logs in another, the Madeline puzzle on a table, and the felt board on another table. I encouraged the children to play while I set up the rest of the materials.

The Library sent their technology person to help me connect my laptop to the large screen in the room. We had a great atmosphere as I played Allons Dancer from Whistlefritz while the kids were playing and getting to know each other.

We start on time (that’s the plan, at least) and do not wait for stragglers. However, given our new location, I waited five extra minutes to make sure people had time to get their bearings and find us. It is a larger building – by small town standards.

We ran through the Bonjour song twice, then I read them the books. Petra Lingua was a hit – maybe because the kids loved operating the laptop and seeing their work projected onto the large roll-down screen.

They actually took turns doing the exercises over and over, which only gave them more practice.

We sang another song – Dans la forêt lointaine.

We barely had time for free play – which tells me we really need to start on time AND I need to read less books. No more than three books, I think. And, maybe, no extra song for now.

We sang our Au Revoir song twice and then we actually said “au revoir” to each other on the way out. On parle français déjà!

Later, I checked with the building manager and she agreed to move us into the Community Classroom from now through Aug 24, when we go to Bridgemont – another smaller, more intimate meeting room.

I am glad to be completely out of Burchfield, which is a huge room. I ran a LEGO Club in there two years ago and it just feels like you get lost in it, especially when you have less than 10 students.

Several of the families interested in our Play Group went to the Petting Zoo that day – a field trip they had planned for four months, long before I started the French Play Group. So we will have to repeat the lesson and that is just fine by me. Repetition is the mother of learning.

I did not mean to create a scheduling conflict, but I had to start somewhere and working with a Library gives you only so many options.

About two months ago, I had a burning desire to start a French Group. All the details have been worked out and, in a few days, we will have our first meeting. So, so exciting.

This is a post for all the parents bringing their children, but I thought it might inspire others, too.

Here’s the lesson plan for the first French Play Group:

1. Start with Bonjour, bonjour les amis, a song from the CD Whistlefritz, Allons Danser. I will have the kids sitting on the floor, girls on one side and boys on the other side. That’s to demonstrate the difference between masculine and feminine nouns and adjectives in French. Also, to be able to point at the girls when we say “copines” and to point at the boys when we say “copains.”

I will bring the CD and we will sing along twice. I am making up some hand motions.

You can listen to bits of the song on the Amazon link above, to get an idea. I have not found a youtube video for it. – 5 minutes

a. L’Été – for simple vocabulary about summer time; Reading A-Z is a great source of French leveled books; our e. selection below is also from the same website

b. Popi magazine article – for the story about Petit Ours Brun – Moi, j’ai un copain – in the May 2014 issue

c. Popi magazine article – for the story called Coucou, bébé – in the June 2014 issue – to learn another way to say hi

d. Madeleine – it’s a rather difficult book for them at this stage, but they must be challenged a bit. Plus, Madeleine will be one of our French friends throughout the year and we must introduce her. Our end-of-the-year party, in May, will have a Madeleine theme, definitely. Maybe.

e. Chaud, froid – to reinforce the words for hot, cold, which are also found in our Bonjour song

Reading should take 10-12 minutes. Our children are young, but I hope they can make it. I don’t know them very well, either. So I will adjust. If they get antsy, I will keep one or two books for another time.

3. Sing “Dans la forêt lointaine.” I will bring a felt nature background with a faraway forest and I made two puppets, a cuckoo and an owl, to go with the song. We will go through it twice. – 5 minutes

4. PetraLingua.com French Lesson nr. 1 – Woofy, the Petra Lingua mascot, will teach us, hopefully in person. This is our curriculum for the year and we will do one lesson per meeting. I am expecting a package from them (they are in Croatia), which will have an actual stuffed animal Woofy – it’s a hand puppet. If it does not arrive by next week, we will have to make do with admiring him online. It will increase the anticipation for next time.

The plan is to connect my laptop to the TV screen in the room. I will ask an older child or several to come and do the exercises on the laptop and then all can see it. 10 minutes

5. Free play time – bring toys that do not require batteries to “work,” please. – 20 minutes

I have saved several documents on our Sevier County Homeschoolers Facebook page: guidelines for the group; a calendar showing the meeting dates and rooms we will be using at the library throughout the year; the titles of our lessons for the year; and lyrics and vocabulary for the songs.

(1) Picnic and petanque tournament (pique-nique et tournoi de pétanque) at the Cove at Concord Park

(2) Immersion meal (table française) at the French-Belgian restaurant called “Northshore Brasserie” in West Knoxville.

The window of Northshore Brasserie

Through the Alliance Française, we met people from Québec, France, Iran, Switzerland and even the United States (ha!). The conversations cover a multitude of topics and we all enjoy the interaction in the language of Molière. We definitely plan to join them for Bastille Day, our next “réunion.”

Here are the details…

During the first event, we met everybody and played pétanque. Then, we had a picnic. Most of the dialogue was in French, but some of our spouses spoke to each other in English because they do not speak French at all.

Pétanque is a game like its Italian cousin, bocce. The difference is that, in bocce, you run before tossing the ball. In pétanque, you don’t. You stand and toss your ball from the launching spot.

Even though the weather was cold and my children were not too sure about speaking French to any of our new friends, we had a good time.

To say that I was inspired by the fellowship in French would be an understatement. I went home and worked on some more resources for our homeschool, like subscribing to different TV5 Monde newsletters and reaching out via email to a French family living in Knoxville, who were recommended by the members of this group.

By the second meeting, the immersion table, my children had more courage to interact in French. I am surprised by how quickly they pick up a language, but I should not be. Children under 12 are biologically wired to pick up multiple languages.

Alliance Française of Knoxville members enjoying lunch and French conversations at Northshore Brasserie

After one month of teaching them, they understand simple phrases (what is your name? how old are you? come here, look at me, please, thank you etc) and they can count to ten. My son already uses “Eh, voilà!” when he brings me something.

When asked how old he was during the immersion table, he answered he was six years old. He constructed his sentence half in English and half in French. Progress.

Here’s another observation: their third language, French, is pushing their mother tongue, Romanian, to the forefront.

I spoke Romanian with my children since birth, but they answer me in English 99% of the time.

Today, my son and I were watering the garden. My daughter came over and asked to help, too. We took turns. When she asked to go over her allotted time, my son said, “In nici un caz!” in Romanian, which means “No way!”

I had never heard my son say that phrase before. Ever.

I knew he knew what it meant when I said it, but I did not know he could pronounce it so well and use it in an appropriate context. So I am really, really encouraged to see a bit of the fruit of my labors.

1. Attach the French days of the week vocabulary cards to your calendar display. Cover the days of the week in English with your French cards. If the English words are bigger than the French cards, you can glue the French flash cards onto bigger paper, like construction paper.

Attach the cards with push pins or clothes pins onto your calendar board. Ask your students to recite the days of the week in French first. Then, reveal the English words.

2. If you have eight or more students, have seven students carry a day of the week flash card and another child arrange them in order. Take turns. If you have less than eight, you can have your students carry two cards each, in order.

Another variation: the students can arrange the flash cards in sequential order on the table. For kinesthetic learners, put the cards on the floor, on a hopscotch rug or on a hopscotch outline you made with pencils or popsicle sticks.

If the weather permits it, play the game outside, on a hopscotch drawn with chalk in your driveway. They can say the name of each day as they reach the respective square.

3. Have your students make up a song with the days of the week to the tune of an English song they know well. Try “Twinkle, Twinkle” or “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

4. To rehearse the names slowly, show them how to break the word into syllables, e.g. “mar-di.” Clapping the beats of the syllables is a great way to experience the pronunciation in slow repetition – essential for memorization.

Hope these games bring a bit more variety and fun to your homeschool learning. A bientôt!